Make Server Compatible with Wordpress automatic updates and plugin installations

I'm basically pulling my hair out because I'm not exactly sure how to solve this problem.

I've transferred over 30 wordpress websites to my server and each one have the same issue. Before the move they were all able to install plugins and update from the Wordpress dashboard without needing FTP credentials.

Now every website is asking for FTP credentials, and even though it goes through the plugin update procedure... the plugins never actually get updated. As well as several other issues.

I'm trying to figure out where to start looking on my server to make it compatible without wordpress while not needing to use FTP to utilize the dashboard automatic installation method.

The updates work when I switched my FTP server to Pro-ftpd instead of the pure ftp server. However I would prefer not to use FTP at all and just let Wordpress do it's thing naturally.

Would having the libssh2 php extension installed resolve this issue? Been browsing the Wordpress files and in the "class-wp-filesystem-ssh2.php" file it mentions this.

I'm still reading multiple posts but not directly related to my issue, but very similar. Am I correct assuming that for Wordpress to use the autoinstaller without needing FTP credentials, it uses the SSH2 function?

I guess maybe if I understand what type of method wordpress uses when it is able to autoinstrall without needing FTP credentials, I might have a better idea on where to look to fix the issue on my server.

The PHP handler is selected in the WebHost Manager in Main >> Service Configuration >> Apache Configuration >> PHP and SuExec Configuration. suPHP is one of four possible PHP handlers on a cPanel server, in addition to CGI, FCGI and DSO. Not all handlers may be listed on all servers, depending on what is compiled using EasyApache.

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The PHP handler is selected in the WebHost Manager in Main >> Service Configuration >> Apache Configuration >> PHP and SuExec Configuration. suPHP is one of four possible PHP handlers on a cPanel server, in addition to CGI, FCGI and DSO. Not all handlers may be listed on all servers, depending on what is compiled using EasyApache.

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This is absolutely correct. If you don't know how to do this without having to post on a forum you may want to look at obtaining server management from your provider, a third party, or shifting to a fully managed service.

We *don't* have suphp installed on the server in question, but with this fix, assuming permissions generally are set correctly (which they were all the time), hopefully auto-updating should become more reliable/stable.